A. Arthur Fisher

The Head & The Heart played to a largely full house at the Arlington on Saturday night. When I got there, I could see the house filling up with a very young crowd, including early teens. I was restrained from shooting from the side aisles, and I knew the young crowd would stand up as soon as the band hit the stage. This creates a little bit of a problem since there's no easy way to shoot over people's heads, when your standing amongst a crowd.

I used my 400/f4 on a monopod from halfway back from the stage. This is where the theater floor starts a steeper incline, and I can actually get a more unobstructed shot. I also had to shoot with my camera above my head level, using "Live View." This makes focusing tricky, but with my new Canon 1D-X Mark II camera, I could tap the rear display where I wanted focus, like how a smartphone's camera works.

Last week, the Santa Barbara Bowl's 2017 Concert Season kicked off with Sigur Rós playing to a full house of fans. Rain was off and on throughout their show. This obviously made things difficult to carry around a hunk of expensive electronic gear. Fortunately, pro camera gear tends to be quite resistant to rain. Furthermore, the roof of the stage pavilion at the Bowl extends out to cover the 10-20 feet of the floor. This means that all of us photographers were covered while shooting. The trick was in unpacking and packing up the gear in the uncovered staging area.

All in all, it worked out because I got some great photos. I shot with a brand new Canon EOS 1D-X Mark II, which replaced my aging 1D Mark IV. The newer camera has a significantly improved focusing system, but the button layout is slightly changed, so I fumbled with it a bit.

We were permitted to shoot songs 2, 3 & 4 of the second set. There was no opening act.

Rip-roaring jam-blugrass masters, The String Cheese Incident, shared their bountiful music to a foot-stompin', dancin' crowd at the Arlington Theatre. The theatre was surrounded by seekers of the elusive miracle ticket, while inside, groupies enjoyed a show complimented with dazzling lights. There was a lot of stage fog, which makes for an interesting visual, but it can also make the photography more difficult. There were also a lot of enthusiasts crowded in the "pit" area against the stage where I shoot.

This gril has eyes so mesmerizing that they could burn your heart. She's coy and stand-offish for an actress. “Rooney does this thing where she makes you own her eye contact,” said tonight's moderator. So true. She seemed to have some kind of awkward confidence as she waked down the red carpet, nary to make a smile. But after warming up during her interview, a few great smiles were busted out.

He's definitely a little strange, but I suppose that's one of the things that makes him so great playing strange characters. The interview started with Johnny acting so oddly that I thought that maybe he was on something. Eventually he came around, and I figured that maybe he was just a little nervous being interviewed in front of a full house. On stage, you get to play a character, so if you act weird, you're just in part.

Depp said about filming Donnie Brasco that Al Pacino was by far the craziest actor he's ever worked with. "He's certifiable." I think he mentioned that four times in the span of a few minutes.

Anyway, the interview was quite entertaining for his acceptance of the Santa Barbara Film Festival's Maltin Modern Master Award. Depp is a character on and off the stage.

This year's Virtuosos Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival brought us a star-packed evening of actors on the cusp of greatness. I was looking forward to photographing the beautiful, Elizabeth Banks. Too bad she's already married ;)

It was pretty cool seeing Sylvester Stalone in the flesh as he belted out a Rocky fighting characterization with Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed). Check out the cool photos accompanying the fantastic review by Jen Strube on thearlingtontheatre.com.

The1975 had one of the coolest stage designs I've ever seen. Not only was the entire backdrop a video wall, but there were large, square columns, also made of video wall construction. The lighting designer made the show amazingly dynamic, at one point dressing the stage as a miniature city of skyscrapers. The shiny stage floor topped off the visual experience.

The house was a smaller, intimate crowd, and the young girls made ear-piercing screams.

Nor-Cal rapper, G-Eazy played to a full house at the Santa Barbara Bowl last weekend. "This is the loudest audience I've ever played for," he exclaimed, eliciting an even louder roar, filled with a lot of high-pitch screaming from young girls.

Although the stage was very well decorated, the spots were very hot on Eazy's white jacket, making shooting conditions tough. The pit wasn't too tight, so it wasn't too difficult to manuever. G was pretty dynamic and his persistent smile gave away his great mood.

Guests, Nef The Pharaoh, Marty Grimes and Daghe, made for a picturesque crew.

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